According to brewer and beer blogger Chris Conway, the province is just starting to get in on a trend that's been sweeping the U.S. and the rest of Canada for more than a decade.

"It seems like a lot in just the Newfoundland context, but if you look at larger national context in provinces like Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, we are way, way behind," he told the St. John's Morning Show.

Chris Conway is a beer blogger who also founded a brewpub in Toronto before moving back to St. John's with plans to start one in his home province. (Paula Gale/CBC)

Conway and his wife founded a brewpub in Toronto before moving back to Newfoundland with plans to launch a new one in the St. John's area. Through his blog newfoundlandbeer.org, he's been tracking the development of craft beer in the province over the last few years.

2019: Year of beer?

He said it will take time for recently-announced microbreweries to go through the environmental assessment process. Three proposals are now at that stage.

Most should be clear to open by next year, he said.

"We're really looking at summer 2019 as being the birth of beer again in Newfoundland."

The craft beer and cider scene in Newfoundland and Labrador is looking more and more crowded. (Split Rock Brewing Co./Facebook, Scudrunner Brewing/Facebook, Submitted)

What's interesting about the craft beer renaissance in Canada's most eastern province is that many of the new breweries are not in St. John's, but are spread out across rural areas.

Conway said de-centralization is good to see, and that craft breweries are actually drawing "beer tourists" to small communities that are off the beaten track.

"It's going to drive tourism to all these towns and communities, just for people to say 'I want to go try a beer,'" he said.

"We've seen this so well with Port Rexton Brewing Company, who have driven tons and tons of people out to Port Rexton."

Sonja Mills and Alicia MacDonald moved to Port Rexton, Newfoundland, to start a microbrewery in 2016. They supply seven bars and restaurants and have a wait list of 23 companies who want to sell their craft beers. (Chris O'Neill-Yates/CBC)

Most of the microbreweries that have already opened are having trouble keeping up with demand. YellowBelly and Quidi Vidi Breweries seem to be the only two local breweries big enough to keep up with demand year-round.

That leads Conway to believe the industry has a lot of opportunity to grow.

"Newfoundland's market could probably deal with four or five Quidi Vidi-sized breweries," he said.

"Everybody that opens sells out of beer immediately. Port Rexton is struggling to keep up and we just saw Bootleg Brew Co. open in Corner Brook and they were open for the weekend and just had to shut down because they were out of beer."